Professional Ballhead?

Tripod Head and Camera Plate of Professional Quality

Even with the top quality camera and lenses, an extremely stable support system is a must to get a razor sharp result with excellent details and contrast. The support system is consisted of the tripod and tripod head. Most professional photographers recognize a sturdy well-made tripod to be the most crucial accessory to support the camera and lens. However, many photographers overlook the importance of the tripod head and how it can influence their work. Tripod head permits the photographer to compose the view with three-dimensional adjustments.

There are two types of tripod head; the 3-way pan-tilt head and the ball-and-socket head. Three-way pan-tilt head of a good quality is an excellent equipment for scenic, studio or architectural photographs. It permits vertical, horizontal adjustment for composition.

However, versatility for multi-directional adjustment as well as swinging and tilt-shifting is usually not quite possible with pan-tilt head. Therefore, many large format studio view cameras are equipped with the ball head underneath the monorail.

Ball-and-socket head is inherently easier to use with one-touch multi-directional adjustment. Due to the versatility as well as its lighter weight and smaller size, ball-head is extremely useful for action photography, and easy to carry for traveling-hiking photographs. Theoretically, the center of gravity in the ball-head, which is exactly at the center of tripod, is lower than that of the pan-tilt head. Therefore, well-engineered ball-head with appropriate use should be more stable than the pan-tilt type. However, most ball-and-socket heads commonly available are far too weak and vibration-prone to handle current 35 mm SLR cameras with long lens combination.